Panna Cotta with Ricoré

Ricoré is a French coffee made of chicoree from Nestlé.
It is great to have in hot milk in the late afternoon. No problems to sleep later.

A coffee drink without coffee beans has a long tradition here. I often had Caro as a child. The taste is similar to Ricoré. The blue flowers of the wild chicoree can be found along sides of dry roads and it is very strong snd dies not need much water. The roots are used for this.
Many years ago I took part in many herbal excursions and we tried to get some roots to make some coffee ourselfs. We all gave up. Too much hassle to get the plant out of the bone dry earth.

Last week I made coffee panna cotta and it was awesome. I checked my large tin of Ricoré coffee and thought about using it in a panna cotta too.

Recipe for 3:
200 ml whole milk
300 ml double cream
3 gelatine leaves
4 heaped tsp icing sugar
3 heaped tsp Ricoré
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
A pinch ground vanilla pod

Soak the gelatine in cold water.

Heat up milk, cream and icing sugar in a pot. Add Ricoré and vanilla extract and some ground up vanilla pod. When it starts to boil, take it off the heat. Squeeze out the gelatine and dissolve it in the hot liquid. Fill in 3 small jars and set to cool in the fridge for 3 hours.

Sugar snap peas in lemon cream sauce with pasta

Once again creative fridge ingredients cooking. After a long day and a mediocre lunch I wanted something freshly made. But it needed to be fast and easy.
I stuck my head in the fridge and found half of a package of sugar snap peas, a lemon on its last leg, some creme fraiche left over from the muffin bake and 2 spring onions sticking out of my water jar. The bottom of a bag of Russian pasta contained about
90 g of it, sitting on the counter since last week. Enough for a decent plate of food.

I cooked the pasta in Chef Marquard style in 200 ml water, salt and 3 slices of ginger.  In the end most of the thick starchy liquid went into the sauce.

Recipe:
85 g sugar snap peas
1 lemon
90 g pasta
2 spring onions
4 tbsp creme fraiche
2 slices of ginger
Oil
Salt and pepper

I cut off the tops of the peas and cut them lengthwise.
Chopped spring onions heated in oil, added peas and lemon zest and a bit of juice.
Season and finish with creme fraiche.

Feta on mixed veggies en papillote

En Papillote means wrapped and cooked in oiled paper.  Papillote was actually candy wrapper paper. A save way to cook. All juices and aromas stay inside the paper. That intensifies the taste.
The downside of thie method is that you do not have a chance to check if the ingredients are done or still raw. Good timing is key to this method.

I has a couple of veggies from last weekend grocery haul. They needed to get out of the veggie drawer. I package of Sheep/goats milk cheese was good until end of this month. Some walnuts sat in a bag on the counter from an other dish.

Recipe:
1 medium courgette
1 yellow bell pepper
1 Jalapeño
6 cherry tomatoes
1 spring onion
1 stalk rosemary
4 stalks thyme
1/2 lemon juiced
Salt and pepper
4 tbsp olive oil
200 g Feta cheese
50 g walnuts
4 cloves of garlic

Heat up the oven 180 C fan.

Cut all veggies in bite size pieces. Put tge in a big bowl and season them and pour olive oil ob top. Mix.
Strip the rosemary, chop and put half in a bowl with the cheese and garlic. The other halve goes with the thyme into the veggies. Squeeze the lemon in.

Use a big sheet of paper. Pour the veggies in the middle.

Mix feta, garlic, rosemary and chopped walnuts with a little olive oil. Season with pepper. Pour on top of the veggies.
Close the paper and transfer it to a baking sheet. Bake for 30 min.

Broccoli Pasta with Anchovis Croutons

You have to love anchovis and garlic to be a fan of this dish.

The best way to get over your thirst is a steady intake of beer 😀.

The spaghetti are a good choice. The broccoli cream folds into them and you will jot see it on the plate, but it is there.

Start you work with the preparation of the croutons. They go cold over the pasta later. Then peel the broccoli stem, cut it into cubes and cook it in salted water for 8 min. Save the broccoli water in the pot.

Recipe for 2:
225 g spaghetti
5 anchovis filets in oil
3 large cloves of garlic
30 ml + 30 ml olive oil
Salt and pepper
200 g broccoli
1 thick slice of Italian or any other white bread
Basil

Take of the crust of the bread and cut it into cubes.
Put 30 ml oil in a pan and add the anchovis straight from the jar and the rough chopped garlic. Saute it for 5 min. Add the bread and let it get brown.
Put it into an electric chopper and make a rough crumb. Fill in a bowl to cool.

Take the cooked stems out of the water and put into the same chopper. Add 3 tbsp broccoli water, 1 garlic clove, a bit of salt and pepper and give it a whirl. Add the other 30 ml of olive oil and make a smooth cream.

Cook some broccoli florets for 3 min. Drain.

Cook the spaghetti al dente. Mix them with the cream.
Put on a plate and dress with florets, croutons and basil.

Don't forget the beer!

Coffee Panna cotta

This is a super fast way to prepare a dessert. It just needs a couple of minutes to prepare. 3 hours in the fridge and it is good to serve.

I found a 500 ml tetra pak with double cream in the back of my fridge with todays expiration date. I did not use it for the original recipe. I did not want it to go to waste.
Pannacotta is a classic dessert containing double cream. No time like now. What works nice with double cream? COFFEE.

Recipe:
500 ml double  cream
60 g sugar
2 tbsp freeze dried coffee
4 gelatin leaves

Some hot chocolat powder

Soak gelatine in cold water, squeeze. In a pot heat up the 3 upper ingredients until they startnto boil. Cut off the heat and dissolve the gelatin.
Fill in individual jars and put in the fridge.

Chicken Breast marinated in Buttermilk with Hot Honey Sauce

I am still trying put recipes from my new airfryer cookbook.

Chicken marinated and then fried is an old method.

Buttermilk and Chicken are a good combination. The acidity of the buttermilk makes the chicken very tender.

As a side I choose some little gnocchi and the rest of the Pico de Gallo from Saturday.

Marinate:
200 ml buttermilk
1 tsp smoked paprika
salt
dried chili
Trader Joe´s Umami seasoning
garlic powder
dried onions

Coating:
flour, salt and chili
eggs
1 tsp water

400 g chicken breast

sauce:
3 tbsp honey
1 tbsp cayenne pepper

The pieces that are thinner get a bit dry in the airfryer. Next time I will use thighs for this recipe.

Marinate the chicken 5 hours.
Prepare the flour mix
Beat egg with water.
Pull the chicken pieces through flour egg flour.
Put the in the airfryer and brush with oil.
20 min at 180 C
Melt the honey and add the spice

Hot Dogs for 4th of July

To celebrate 4th of July I decided to prepare some Hot Dogs.

I rarely make some, very rarely. The last time I´ve eaten some was at IKEA in Berlin last year.
But a couple of different filling options for Hot Dogs in my new air fryer cookbook inspired me.

For 2 Dogs I needed in one a couple of fried potato cubes and in the other some fried potato sticks. They went into the air fryer first for 20 min.

I made a dressing with creme fraiche, ketchup, sweet hot mustard and dried herbs.
I pickled some onions - there is a Blog for that
I made Pico de Gallo - one of my latest Blogs

The Dogs only needed about 7 min at 180 C and were ready.

One of the Hot Dogs got a classic filling:
Dressing, sauerkraut, pickled onions, deep fried onions,  potato sticks, dog, American Mustard

Second Hot Dog was Mexican style:
Dressing, Pico de Gallo, jalapeno, dog , Coriander and Ketchup

Third Hot Dog was Cuban style:
Dressing, fried potato cubes, pickled onion, dog, Ketchup

After eating the first dog, I mostly ate the filling. I am absolutely no fan of the Hot Dog buns.